Happy Birthday

September is our busy month for Birthdays.  This week we celebrated Rylee's and Dan's special days. On Rylee's birthday, I asked her what she wanted me to do with her hair.  She told me she wanted "cake hair".  CAKE hair?!  What is that?!  I put a little bun on top and she was satisfied with that.  Such a funny girl. She had lots of helper with her presents and had a marvelous time.  She asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and it was yummy yummy.  I even let them have ice cream with it.

Dan had his usual Jello Poke Cake and that was delicious too. He had a lovely birthday and the children were anxious to assist with his gifts as well.  And that Callie photo.... totally staged.  She's such a ham!

Annoyed

Marian has been getting up at 6:45 to run before school most mornings of the week.  She said she loves running and if I'm not planning to run, she bugs me till I go out with her.  She's a funny girl!

The school offers after school clubs and this year, the organization "Girls on the Run" started a club.  Marian really wanted to join this club.  She talked about it and asked about it and I finally signed her up for it, knowing it was going to mess up my schedule.  We have been doing MWF karate, but the Girls on the Run meets MW, so we'd have to shift that around.  But Marian was really excited about this club. I figured it was worth a little sacrifice, since there is very little that excites her.

Marian does not like new things.  She does not enjoy doing something for the first time and she gets very anxious about doing something she has never done.  I was worried about her doing this club because it would be noisy and chaotic at the start up.  I went to the school yesterday to make sure she got where she needed to be.  She saw me in the hallway and waved me away with that "Stop embarrassing me!" look.  So yeah, she was fine!  She had a blast and loved the club.  I was so thrilled that she found something she wanted to do badly enough to get out of her comfort zone, and I was so happy it went well for her.

Today I got an email about the club.   Now, Girls on the Run is a national organization.  Their official mission is "to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident." My understanding was that this organization was to help girls, and especially lower income girls, to run.  Imagine my astonishment, when I discovered that they want $200 for this privilege!

It is RUNNING!  Running.  Something you do right outside your front door.  It requires expensive shoes to do it right, but other than that, there really is no cost to it.  $200 for a running club?!  How on earth does that make running accessible to all girls?!

I'm stinking mad that they want that kind of money for a running club.  I'm even more mad that my daughter was so excited about doing this, and this could be a deal breaker.  Could we come up with $200?  Sure, you can always come up with money for something you feel strongly about.  But that's the thing.  It is running.  Running.  Not rocket science.  Not something that requires lot of gear to purchase or travel or expenses.  It just isn't worth it to me, and it kills me that my little girl was so excited about it and this stupid fee might mean she couldn't do it.

On the plus side, they say they can work with you on the fee, but no way will we pay even half that, so we will see.

Run like a Zebra

I run with a running group.  Not all the time.  But once or twice a week, we get together and go out for a run.  My friends all run like gazelles.  They are fit and thin and run with grace and confidence.  I am not thin, but I could argue for fit.  I lack the grace and style of their ground-eating strides.  I feel like the ugly duckling compared to their obvious runner-hood.  They are gazelles. (Hmmm... I'm mixing my metaphors!)

I am not a gazelle.  I think I'm more of a zebra.  I trot along in short little strides.  I jiggle in more places than a gazelle.  I do not look elegant or lovely.  I look tired and sweaty, but I get the job done.

In my mind, I am a Kenyan.  I run like my friends, with long, sure strides, looking lovely while I do it.  In my mind, I am 20 years younger, and 30 pounds lighter.  It always surprises me when I see pictures that show me the contrary.

I wish I looked like a gazelle.  I wish I ran like a gazelle.  But I am me.  I am a zebra.  I can trot out there at my 10 minute mile pace, and I know I can do it a lot longer than most of the Navy guys who zip past me on their 1.5 mile PFT.  And I'm happy with me.  I do not have to be faster or better than my friends.  I only have to be faster or better than my goals.  And actually, I do not even have to be faster or better.  I'm looking 40 in the eye.  I'm not going to get much faster or better!  I just have to keep moving.  And I am.  I like the grazing too much not to.   I want to enjoy life.  I'm going to eat my chocolate, guilt free.  And I'm going to put on my go-fasters and run it off.  I'd rather eat chocolate and jog along like a zebra, then give up my chocolate and bound like a gazelle.

So I'm going to buy myself some black and white striped socks and get myself out pounding the pavement, and I'm going to love it.  Because I am a zebra.

Mini-Muck Mud Run Race Report

A few months ago, I discovered and immediately signed the 3 oldest kids up for a Mini-Muck Kids race.  It was held in conjunction with a full 5k Play Dirty obstacle course/mud run.  The kids were thrilled that there was a mud run they could do.  Marian and Callie had asked to get up and run with me before school.  Callie stuck it out a few times, but Marian hung in there and ran the loop 3-4 mornings a week for the past few weeks.  The loop is only 3/4 a mile or so, and she didn't run the whole thing, but she did a good job.

Anyway, back to today!  We got up at 5:45am.  I wasn't sure how things would go and I wanted to be prepared for chaos, so I planned plenty of extra time.  I didn't need to.  We got there at 7:15 and there were very few people there.  Our heat wasn't till 8:30, so there was plenty of time to kill.  Even with screwing around, and the kids making a grassman out of the mowed grass, we were bored.  So we jumped in with the 8am heat.  It was the first one, and there were maybe 50 kids running it.  There might have been more, but we were in the front.

The kids started off fast.  I didn't know what to expect, so I was prepared in case I had to jump in the mud with them, so I was in full running gear, and carrying nothing but my little water proof camera.  The pictures are very low quality due to that.  All the kids bolted at the start and I had to sprint to keep up.  The race was held at a big park around the Zephyrs Stadium, so part of the run was on paved trail. Then they had a few obstacles to go over and under.  Callie was disappointed there wasn't more mud.  I think the ground is not conducive to mud.  Or it got muddier as more people slogged through it.  There were only 2-3 water obstacles, which I think were suppose to be mud, but were just dirty water.

Marian rocked it.  She was ahead of Joshua and Callie for most of the race.  She's fast and she has been practicing, and she was great.  They loved it and had a really good time.  It was 85 degrees, so it was hot, but it was only a mile run.  The race ended inside the stadium, which was fun.  And everyone got medals at the end!  

My take.... it was a little disorganized.  Fortunately, it seemed like a smaller race.  Granted, I only have the enormity of the Warrior Dash to compare it to, and we were there for the first run.  The 5k run didn't begin till 9 am, which is when we were leaving, but it still didn't seem very crowded at all.  I hope they had a decent turn out, because it was fun.  And there are so few events like that for kids.  Joshua said it was awesome.  Even though he got his tail kicked by his sisters!  He didn't do any running at all prior.

And now you can enjoy the 500 pictures I took today!

Ready to go!

Chillin and being cool.

He ASKED me for a cape to wear!

Being silly.

Running around, trying to make his cape flow in the breeze.

Building a grass-man.  Callie also has a cape, in black.

Posing with their grassy creation.

I know, their talent astounds me as well.

First obstacle!  Marian is on the far left on top, and you can see Joshua and his cape in the center on top.

And they are over and away!

Run, Marian, run!

Joshua leaping the second obstacle.

Marian coming out of the tunnel.

Callie was right behind her!  Joshua is still on his way to the tunnel.

Marian on her way up the cargo net.

Callie on top of the cargo net and Joshua on the approach!

Joshua is on his way over it.

Marian coming out of the watery tunnels.

Joshua went through pretty quick and slogged right out.

Running out of steam.

See, mostly just dirty water.  But Callie said the mud on the bottom sucked at your shoes.

Not more crawling!

They wanted you to low crawl through this, but the kids were not having it!  They just hunched and scrambled!

Yep, stayed pretty clean through it, the cheaters!

Joshua actually went pretty low.

"Where is the finish line?!!"

"I have to walk, my feet hurt."

Glorious sprint to the finish!  That's my girl!

Followed by Callie.

And one tired Joshua.

Hot, tired, and quite pleased with themselves!  They finished it in under 15 minutes, too.

Monday with Rylee

Now that the big kids are back in school, it is me and Rylee all day long most days.  This is what we did on Monday!

 The big library has a great Story Time.

 Rylee dancing to "Ants in Your Pants"!

Reading Clifford. 

Carefully working on her craft. 

So meticulous with the glue. (I did assist with the cutting!) 

We stopped for an ice cream cone at the Dairy Dip. 

This kid takes FOREVER to eat a cone. 

Good to the last lick. 

Ooooh!  See the bird crossing the road right in front of us? 

Rylee likes to harass Levi whenever possible. 

This is her Binky Dog- his name is Collar.  (And she has been AWESOME about giving up the pacifier.  The build a bear dog was the best idea ever!) 

Capping off the day with a cupcake.  Yummy!